Until Graduation
by Hot Goose
Summary: It's the Trio's seventh year at Hogwarts and Hermione has matured over the summer. Professor Snape can't help noticing but will he be able to control himself until graduation or will he act sooner on what is rapidly becoming an obsession?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer ; I own nothing, it all belongs to JK. ( breaks down into a puddle of tears)

This is AU as I haven't taken into account the events in the sixth book. This is set in Harry's seventh year and is Severus Snape and Hermione Granger pairing. Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 1

Hermione was leaning over her cauldron stirring vigorously and watching carefully, waiting until her potion turned a pale shade of pink. She then carefully chopped her mandrake roots and sprinkled them into her cauldron. Now all she had to do was wait five minutes until it turned deep blue, she sat down and her eyes began wondering vaguely around the classroom. Her eyes wondered vaguely around the classroom. She glanced at Professor Snape and was suddenly struck by the intensity of his gaze, she quickly looked away confused and slightly embarrassed (although she wasn't sure why) and concentrated on her potion, checking it for any sign of errors but there was nothing wrong with it, in fact it was perfect.

She heard mutter darkly to Harry who snorted with laughter and shook his head, Ron glared moodily at Snape's back and then at Hermione. She opened her mouth to ask what she had done to merit such a look when Professor Snape barked " Potter, Weasley it is no wonder that you two are barely averaging a mere acceptable in this class, now get back to work! Both of you" he added in a dangerous whisper as he received insolent stares from both boys. Harry and Ron bent their heads over their cauldrons. Hermione was starring at Snape, wondering why he had been staring at her.

"Is something wrong Miss Granger?" he questioned quite innocently as though he had been staring at her in such a peculiar way only moments before.

" I...er...nothing, sorry Professor." She replied quietly.

" Then I suggest that you watch your potion more carefully in future Miss Granger or you will fail this class." he commented cuttingly and strode to his desk with a satisfied smirk on his sallow face. Hermione yelped and quickly looked at her potion, it had turned a heinous orange when it was supposed to be lilac, she hadn't added the dragon heart strings in time because she had been distracted, she frantically tried to correct it before the end of the lesson.

Severus Snape sat down at his desk and observed Hermione Granger discreetly behind some third-year essays he was pretending to mark.

_Merlin's beard she is beautiful _he thought to himself. As she began grinding beetle wings vigorously he was forced to stifle a moan, he was profusely grateful for his long teaching robes, he rearranged them and crossed his legs surreptitiously. He couldn't remember the last time a woman had affected him like this.

_What is the matter with me? She's my student for fucks sake and she's barely seventeen. _This argument went round and round in Severus's head constantly but he couldn't stop himself from staring at her, she was captivating it was all he could do not to take her over his desk right now in front of the whole class.

Hermione sat back and sighed with relief as she finished her potion and it was now the correct shade of lilac, bottled on her desk waiting for Professor Snape to collect it. She looked at Ron on her left who was haphazardly chucking ingredients into his cauldron, his potion was bright scarlet. Neville's potion had congealed into a foul smelling orange lump in the bottom of his cauldron. Harry had just bottled his rather (dark purple) potion and was reaching over to put it on the end of his desk when Professor Snape swept past and 'accidentally' knocked it off the desk, sending it crashing to the floor. Harry was furious, his hands had baled into fists and he said quietly "You did that on purpose!"

"Pardon me Mr. Potter, did you say something?"Snape asked smirking.

"You knocked my potion off the desk on purpose!" he repeated more loudly this time.

Snape glared at him for a moment, his yes glittering dangerously.

"Do not accuse me Potter, you will serve detention in my office at eight o'clock on Monday and these will continue for the rest of the week is that clear?" he whispered threateningly.

"Yes" Harry muttered angrily

"Yes what?"

"Yes sir" Harry replied furiously, glaring at Snape's elegantly arched eyebrow.

"And clean this mess up...without magic!" Snape said the malicious smirk back on his face. Snape walked up to Neville's desk and peered into the boys cauldron, he looked up and surveyed Neville coldly, his eyes glittering.

"Why is it Mr. Longbottom that you cannot brew even the simplest of potions, a third year could brew the Dreams-of- Desire potion with their eyes closed?"he asked, obviously very annoyed.

"I...I...sorry Professor" stuttered Neville

"Clean it up you stupid boy!" he barked.

"But Sir it wasn't his fault he..."Hermione began but stopped in her tracks when Professor Snape turned round to face her , one eyebrow raised and a malicious glimmer in his eyes.

"Pardon me Miss Granger, do you wish to join Potter and Longbottom in my office on Monday evening?"

"No Professor" Hermione replied meekly, thinking of her transfiguration assignment she had to complete and knowing she would need as much time as finish it.

"In that case you should keep your mouth closed Miss Granger." he said pointedly, no longer smirking and returned to his desk in a swish of black robes.

_She is so stupid sometimes! _Severus thought angrily to himself once he had returned to his desk. _Honestly she is a typical Gryffindor, always jumping to the defence of the dunderheads. Fool!_

"Bottle your potions and leave them on the end of your desk, then you may leave."he ordered the class, he could feel a throbbing in his temple, a sure sign a headache was coming on and he wanted to be rid of them as soon as possible.

The class cleared their things away at the speed of light and dashed out of the chilly dungeons.

"Phew, I'm glad to be away from the Greasy Bat, he's in a worse mood than normal today." Severus heard Ronald Weasley, Potter's flame headed side kick exclaim loudly just outside the door._ Insolent little brat! If he knew the trouble I go to keep him and the bespectacled one safe he wouldn't say a thing. _Sighing he rose from his chair and swept out of the classroom in a swirl of black robes and headed towards his private living quarters.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Hermione, Harry and Ron entered the Great Hall for dinner, Harry flopped miserably into his chair.

"I can't believe I have a detention with Snape on Monday, the whole weekend is ruined now, all I'll be able to think about is having to scrub cauldrons in that bloody dungeon."

"Yeah he's a right git" Ron replied sympathetically, accidentally spraying Hermione with mashed potato.

"It's Professor Snape Ron" Hermione scolded automatically as she wiped bits of potato from her robes. Seamus and Dean came strutting into the hall both looking very pleased with themselves.

"Hi guys, guess what? Me and Dean have got ourselves dates for the Halloween dance in two weeks."

"Who?" asked Ron eagerly.

"Parvati and Susan" replied Seamus smugly

"You lucky gits, their the best looking girls in the year!" exclaimed Ron

Dean looked quietly pleased with himself as he took the seat next to Harry, who was looking just a little bit envious. Hermione just rolled her eyes.

"There are more ingredients to a successful relationship than looks!" she lectured them.

"Yeah right!" snorted Ron, Harry smirked.

"Who said anything about a relationship?" Seamus asked innocently

Hermione rolled her eyes again, picked up her bag and stormed out of the hall. Harry was sure he heard her mutter "Boys!" under her breath as she left.

Hermione reached the common room and dumped her mountain of books on the table by the fire.

"Hi Hermione." Neville called cheerfully from the portrait hole as he entered the room. She smiled back at him and nestled down in a squashy armchair to get started on her homework. About half an hour later Hermione was just finishing off a rather challenging potions essay when Neville edged up to her.

"H…H…Hermione, doyouwanttogotothedancewithme?" he blurted out.

"What?" Hermione asked in a rare state of total confusion. Neville took several deep breaths and asked "Do you want to go to the dance with me on Halloween"? Hermione blinked, rather taken aback "I…can I think about it?" she replied in what she hoped did not sound like a harsh refusal. "Oh okay" Neville replied slightly deflated, "I'll just be over here then." He muttered, blushing and returned to a dark, distant corner of the common room.

Hermione sighed and, unable to distract herself with the rest of her homework (not that she hadn't tried really hard) she decided to go to the library. She walked out of the portrait hole and down the corridor not watching where she was going and rushed up the seven small steps to the library door, when all of a sudden she collided with something tall, black and solid which sent her flying and she landed sprawled on the floor at the bottom of the steps.

"Miss Granger!" hissed an angry, all too familiar voice. Hermione looked up to see the irate form of her potions master towering over her, fixing her with a deadly glare. She got up (rather awkwardly) and dusted herself off.

"I'm sorry sir I wasn't looking where I was going."

"Ten points from Gryffindor." Professor Snape snapped

"But sir it wasn't my fault." She blurted out before she could stop herself

Snape raised an eyebrow and looked at her coldly, Hermione cringed and inwardly cursed her lack of self control, she knew what was coming next.

"Detention, Monday evening at eight o'clock in my office!" he snapped. Hermione gaped open-mouthed at him, too angry and confused to do anything else.

"Return to your common room Miss Granger." Snape told her slowly, as though speaking to an imbecile, a glint in his obsidian eyes. Hermione turned and hurried off back down the corridor, glancing over her shoulder as she turned the corner she saw Professor Snape still standing there, watching her go.

"Dimidia natura" hissed Snape and the door to his chambers materialized in the wall before him. He swept in to his living room and flopped down onto the large couch in front of the fire. _Miss Granger, Hermione _he thought to himself wistfully as he realised how beautiful her name sounded in his head. Severus had just finished teaching for the day; his last class had been the N.E.W.T's level students which were usually his favourite class as they were usually capable of brewing a half decent potion. But this particular class was ruined by the presence of Potter, Weasley and Longbottom not to mention the know-it-all Miss Granger.

But no matter how much he tried to deny it to himself he could not help but find her eagerness endearing, annoying but endearing all the same. He thought about her chocolate brown eyes and luscious (and unruly) hair, just thinking about her made him hard and he had to supress a moan for about the tenth time today. He raised himself from the couch and picked up 'Saucy Tricks for Tricky Sorts' from one of the bookshelves that lined one the walls of the room in an attempt to distract himself. Two minutes later he decided it was pointless; no matter how hard he tried he could not stop fantasising about her. _What is wrong with me? Students have never affected me this way before, not that I've never realised when they grew from girls to young women but…yuck! They are students not to mention total idiots._ He looked at look on the mantle piece, the large silver snake head pointed at 'Time for dinner'. Severus groaned in annoyance and rose from the couch; he straightened his robes and made his way to the Great Hall.

"Good evening Severus" Dumbledore greeted, he nodded to the Headmaster and took the only available seat on Dumbledore's left hand side. Severus hated sitting next to Dumbledore during dinner, its not that he wasn't fond of the old man but he had an awful habit of talking incessantly which always stopped him from bolting down his food and escaping to his quarters. Severus picked up his knife and fork and was just about to begin eating his steak and kidney pie when Dumbledore cleared his throat and asked "Severus how is your seventh coming along, Harry, Ron and Hermione are doing well I trust?" Severus knew exactly what the old codger was insinuating; that he treat the Golden Trio unfairly because of his hatred of Potter's father.

"Potter and Weasley are just able to cope thanks to Miss Granger who is achieving acceptable grades."

Dumbledore smiled and replied "Oh don't be so modest Severus, I'm sure that with your… er… 'patient' tutelage they are progressing exceptionally well."

Snape scowled, he was in no mood for the old man's jokes tonight. Dumbledore chuckled and patted him on the back. Severus scowled again and continued eating. Thankfully Dumbledore said nothing more, Minerva was telling him about Miss Granger's outstanding results in transfiguration. By the time Severus had started on dessert (cornflake cake, one of his favourites) Dumbledore turned to him and asked "Miss Granger certainly has many excellent attributes, don't you agree Severus?" Severus almost smirked as his mind began to explore the scope of that comment but managed to stop the smirk from reaching his lips just in time. McGonagall was glaring at him warningly, as though daring him to disagree with Dumbledore's comment about her favourite pupil and Dumbledore was looking at him with an unmistakable twinkle in his eyes.

"Her potions grade is nothing remarkable." he replied shortly, he tried hard not to smirk again as he knew exactly what sort of reply his little lie would provoke from Minerva.

"Severus!" gasped Minerva "She is achieving an outstanding constantly in your classes and in every other subject she takes."

Severus merely shrugged and continued eating his cornflake cake, allowing his mind to drift to thoughts of Hermione and before he knew it he was staring at her. She was sitting with the Scruffy Haired Idiot and his side-kick Weasley. _Merlin she looks wonderful _he thought as he gazed wistfully at her whilst she began talking to Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan, she seemed angry and very exasperated. _Her mouth looks lovely, oh look she hasn't got her outer robe on and her shirt is rather tight _he mused as he watched her, captivated as she stormed out of the Great Hall. He felt someone watching him and turned to see Dumbledore looking at him, a knowing look in those sparkling blue eyes. Severus raised a questioning eyebrow, trying to look as innocent as he could but knowing the old man would see right through it. Dumbledore smiled and said "Not getting too…erm…distracted are we Severus?" Severus scowled in reply and Dumbledore's smile grew wider. "I must say Miss Granger is developing very well, with her work for the Order I mean." Dumbledore's smile had vanished and a carefully construed innocent expression had replaced it but his eyes were still twinkling. Severus nodded, he could deny that her knowledge of the Muggle world had come in useful but he would be dammed if he would agree that a Gryffindor and one of Potter's best friends were so valuable to the wizarding world. _But she's valuable to you isn't she?_ whispered a little wheedling voice in the back of his head. Severus suppressed it with difficulty as unbidden images of Hermione came into his head; her in potions class with her plastered to her head because of the steam from the cauldron, her face was all flushed and she sweaty. He blinked and cleared his mind then rose from the table.

"If you will excuse me Headmaster I have some essays that I really must grade."

"I never knew you to be so enthusiastic Severus, oh and try not to upset them too much will you?" Severus couldn't help himself, he smirked knowing full well that at least two of his third year Ravenclaws would burst into tears over the comments he had written on their essays. He inclined his head to Dumbledore and swept out of the Great Hall, heading towards the library.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

_Damn that stupid, idiotic girl! Why couldn't she just watch where she was going?_ Severus thought, highly annoyed._ Great _he thought sarcastically._ Just bloody brilliant! Now I have five hours of Hermione fucking Granger in my office with me trying not to fuck up her against the wall. Oh and there's the Prat-Who-Lived along, with Longbottom who has got to be one of the biggest dunderheads I have ever had the misfortune to teach. Well, I'm going to make these detentions the most miserable hours of their pathetic little lives. _A malicious grin spread across Severus Snape's grim features as he lay in bed that night thinking of those detentions.

"Hermione are you alright?" Harry asked as he saw her coming through the portrait hole her eyes all red and puffy, it was obvious she had been crying.

"I'm fine it's just that Professor Snape gave me detention for running into him, it's not like I did it on purpose I didn't see him." She replied in a trying-to-stay calm tone of voice. She sighed and shrugged then said in rather overly cheerful voice "Honestly I'm fine I'm just going to have to rearrange my homework timetable."

Harry didn't look all together convinced but Ron (having the emotional range of a teaspoon and therefore oblivious to the atmosphere in the room) started chatting happily about the Halloween dance in Hogsmeade in two weeks time, Harry soon forgot about his concern for Hermione as he joined in whole-heartedly with Ron as they devised various plans to get a date. Hermione pushed her thoughts to the back of her mind, deciding to think about them later in bed and started revising ancient runes whilst listening to (and rolling her eyes at) Harry and Ron's conversation.

It was almost midnight by the time Hermione dragged herself away from her books and finally went to bed, but as soon as she drew the hangings around her four-poster bed she felt wide awake and decided she would mull over some of the things that had happened that day. Firstly there was the _very_ weird look Professor Snape gave her in potions and the equally strange look he was giving her as she walked away from the library after she had accidentally walked into him.

_What was wrong with him today? _Hermione thought. _Perhaps he had an extremely difficult mission to complete for the Order, but then again he's a strange man in the first place, what with the long billowing robes and his general attitude of sarcasm and disdain towards everyone. _But something about him was stranger than usual recently and Hermione just couldn't figure out what it was.

_And I have a detention on Monday night to get through _she groaned inwardly.

_Still at least I'll be able to listen to that velvety voice for another couple of hours and that might just make up for the hours spent peeling toads eyeballs or whatever other disgusting punishment Professor Snape gives us._

_Hmmm, should I have them remove the stings from billywigs or pluck the feathers from some jobberknolls?_

Snape was standing in his store cupboard pondering over which punishments to give the three imbeciles who would be serving detention with him tomorrow evening. _Which is the most unpleasant?_ he just couldn't decide between the two.

A knock on his office door interrupted his pleasant daydream of making the three most irritating people he had ever been unlucky enough to teach undergoing some of the vilest punishments he could think of. He strode over to his office door and pulled it open, rather annoyed at this interruption of his peaceful afternoon. Minerva stood in his doorway and before he could even open his mouth to tell her to go away she had dumped a ton of essays in his arms and as he staggered under the weight of them Minerva marched into the room and settled herself in a large, green leather armchair by the small fire.

"There are your fifth year essays on the uses of re'ems"

"Thank you" Severus said trying to carry them to his desk, which he thought might break under the weight of them all. _Ha, the wretches must have been so scared by threats of detention with Filch that they wrote extra long essays!_ he thought triumphantly.

"It's freezing in here Severus!" Minerva grumbled and pointed her wand at the empty grate; the next second a fire was crackling merrily and casting a casting a warm glow around the room making it look almost cosy.

"So Minerva, to what do I owe the…erm…pleasure of your company, surely this is not a social visit."

"No Severus I'm afraid it's not, Albus has requested a meeting of the Order tomorrow evening at nine o'clock. I would be grateful if you could tell Potter, Weasley and Miss Granger as I believe you have sentenced them to detention."

"Minerva, you make it sound as though spending several hours with me in the dungeons is a bad thing" he said with a playful smirk (well, as playfully as he could anyway) "Besides Weasley does not have the pleasure of serving a detention with me, Longbottom does."

"Poor boy. I shall inform Weasley of the meeting myself somehow. When is the next Death- Eater meeting?" Minerva asked, half dreading the answer for she knew that each time Voldemort summoned him could be the last, even though she only knew half of what he went through she could guess the rest. And over the years she had come to value him as a colleague and, on her part a friend.

"Probably not for another week or so but I can't be sure." Severus replied shortly, he crossed the room and took two glasses and a bottle of Old Ogden's Fire Whiskey out of a cabinet, he poured the amber liquid into the tumblers and handed one to Minerva, which she took gratefully.

"Oh, I've been dying for one of these all day, since my second year Slytherins and Hufflepuffs; three of them had to go to the hospital wing after they gave themselves fur."

Severus smirked, "A typical day then"

They sat in silence for a while, sipping their drinks (Minerva was closer to gulping than sipping)

"Have you completed Remus' wolfsbane potion yet?" she asked, not doubting that he had but she had wanted to break the silence.

"It needs to brew for another five days before I can the final ingredients." He replied dully, wanting to steer the conversation onto more neutral topics.

"I was hoping I could borrow your Flourish and Blotts autumn catalogue, I seem to have lost mine and I wanted to order the latest…er… Enchanted Encounters novel." She blushed as she said it.

"Enchanted Encounters, I thought you said that those books were a 'heinous portrayal of witches' and that you 'would never read them even if Merlin himself begged you to.'"

Severus' smirk had grown so wide it could almost be called a grin.

"It's erm…a gift…for…erm…my sister." She stuttered, Severus' smirk grew even wider.

"Oh have you got the catalogue or not!" Minerva snapped, blushing again and looking a little flustered. Severus went to get up from the chair he had been sitting in and accidentally put too much pressure on his left arm, which had been hit with a nasty curse some weeks ago which gave the feeling of almost permanent cramps and it was still bruised and sore. He winced as he felt his wrist crack and immediately cursed himself for showing signs of injury and weakness in front of others. Minerva, seeing his pain had risen quickly from her chair and had placed a restraining hand on his arm preventing him from getting up.

"Severus if you're injured you should go to Poppy." She chastised him, but her voice was full of concern.

"I'm fine, it's healing, I have several potions to take care of it but it was an unknown hex and it is taking longer to heal then I had anticipated" he snapped. Minerva looked at him sceptically, not believing a word of it "I am fine!" he said more forcefully and pushed himself up from the chair, he went over to a small table in the corner of the room and picked up a thick blue catalogue with 'Flourish and Blotts, Autumn Edition' stamped in silver on the front. He handed it to Minerva, ignoring the look of concern she was giving him.

"Is that all?" Severus asked, in a foul mood now after his display of weakness and the amount of fuss it would cause when Minerva told the Headmaster, which she inevitably would. Minerva sighed and nodded then readjusting her hat she walked to the door.

"Minerva" Severus called " which do you think is worse, removing the stings from billywigs or plucking jobberknolls?"

"Oh I always prefer making them squeeze the pus from a bundimun don't you?" she said, a little smile on her face at Severus' version of an apology. "Goodnight Severus" she smiled again and closed the heavy ebony door with a soft click.

Severus smiled to himself, whoever thought that Minerva McGonagall could be so cruel as to make students squeeze the pus from bundimuns? Why hadn't **he** thought of it before?


End file.
